Caffeine High

Well, I am neck deep in the final days of my first year as a PhD student. As much as the amount of work is stressing me out, the feeling of creating and writing is invigorating. I named this post Caffeine High a while ago, but never wrote anything. It’s just been sitting in my drafts bin. A title. Just waiting for the words to make it a post.

I was probably going to write something about coffee, and as I have been drinking copious amounts this week, that makes sense. I just returned from a conference in Kentucky. It is part of a small society inspired by the work of a little-know author. The Elizabeth Madox Roberts Society pilgrimages to her home place in Springfield, Kentucky every year. There’s poetry readings, lots of singing, and the actual conference where scholars and students alike celebrate her work through prose. This year, the conference’s timing couldn’t have been worse. It came right at the beginning of a long string of deadlines for final papers and exams. But, I’m slogging through it now.

All of this is to say, that I’ve been m.i.a for a few weeks for this reason, and I will be taking this next week off as well. The majority of my work involves typing on the computer, and as much as I love using the blog as an escape from my academic duties, I need to take a break from the screen!

But, before I go, I will leave you with a quick update on the state of our kitchen.

We have a pantry! I found this shelf at Target, my new favorite one-stop store. Before this (and I have some before pics, but things really look a mess), we had some boxes on the floor, over-crowded cabinets, and little counter space. Now, we have a proper place to store dry goods. I love it and it only took about 15 minutes to put together.